Tyres for road and track

[mogg]

Apparently Kuhmo are the only company to make a road legal track tyre that will fit Ultimas. Anyone tried these on track - are they noticeably better than the standard Goodyears. Also, comments please re the recommended Goodyears vs Pirelli P Zeros both on road and track. I've heard the Goodyears have better dry grip and the Pirellis better wet grip.
Many thanks.

[G Man]

Kuhmo tyres did not last long for me !! Less than 1000 miles, maybe the tyre maybe me
The Goodyears give great grip in the dry and was great in the wet for me down to Le Mans in a torrential downpour as long as we were doing 100 mph + to get some down force, Steve D was matching me aswell

[bigmack]

Yeah, at the track last weekend I was talking to a guy who was quoting lots of treadwear ratings, and tire statistics, etc.. I'm running the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's and he said these really had excellent all around performance. 280 treadwear. Here's a comparison. www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=MP

Cheers!
-Mack

[B1 ECC]

I've run Kuhmo's for the last two years, and they are excellent! I have used the medium compound which can wear a little quickly but this is a small price to pay for the performsnce, IMHO. The tyres are very readable when it comes to changes in suspension settings which i like, and they have what is reputably the best sidewall in the business?
I have never used the Goodyears, but I have used the Pirelli's and again (IMHO) the Kuhmo's are a far superior track tyre.

[bigmack]

I'd bet Gman's experience are probably normal. Not sure which Kuhmo tyre your talking about but the Ecsta V700 have a UTQG treadwear rating of 50! Versus the Goodyear 280! To give you an idea of what this means, when they run this test they run it against a tire that sets the standard at 100. So 200 would wear twice as slow as the test tire and 300 would wear three times slower. The Hoosier DOT's have a 40 UTQG by the way. I'm sure the Kuhmo's would have better grip on the track, but they would probably wear fairly quickly. Hopefully this sort of quantifies it a little.
Cheers!
-Mack

[G Man]

No doubt the Kumho is a great track tyre, lots of grip, it just did not last for me !!

[fluxen]

Kumho Victoracer V700 and Ecsta V700 are FAR grippier than the Goodyears in question, and Kumho V710's are a couple seconds a lap faster still, though basically a slick with a couple of groves in them. The Kumhos I'm talking about are all what in the US are called DOT-R tires, or street-legal race tires. They're in a completely different class form the Goodyears, which are true street tires. Goodyear does make a DOT-R, the GS-CS, but it has extremely little tread, and is stickier and shorter-lived than the Kumhos.

For the Street, you'd be best off with the Ecsta V700 if available where you are. The Victoracer has extremely little tread, it's not a tire for anything worse than dampness on the road. The Ecsta will do ok with some rain.

[bigmack]

Glad to have someone give an opinion whose probably logged more track time than anyone with these various tires.
Thanks fluxen.
I sure hope one day someone does a DOT-R in a 245/35/17. For now, I'm limited to the goodyear's but this doesn't sound like such a bad thing for my level of experience.
Cheers!
-Mack

[donkeasy]

I drive Pirelli PzeroC on the donkervoort, it's perfect.
Ordered Pirelli pzeroCorsa for the Ultima (11x18 on the back).
These are also used by ferrari for road/track specification.
Because the car is not build yet,
Cannot tell if they are as good as the old ones
but they won't be worse.

[fluxen]

Mack, ask and ye shall receive! Toyo makes the RA1 DOT-R tire in your size: www.toyo.com/tires/tire_specsheet.cfm?id=1

This is the best combination street / track tire, and definitely what I would use if looking for a combo tire. I didn't mention it because the original post made it sound as though Toyo probably doesn't sell in the UK.

[mogg]

fluxen said:

Mack, ask and ye shall receive! Toyo makes the RA1 DOT-R tire in your size: www.toyo.com/tires/tire_specsheet.cfm?id=1 This is the best combination street / track tire, and definitely what I would use if looking for a combo tire. I didn't mention it because the original post made it sound as though Toyo probably doesn't sell in the UK.

Thanks for the great info, but I'm not sure if the Ecsta V700 is available in the UK. The Ecsta V70A is available, how does this compare. Anyone got any V700's, if so, where from ? Can they be imported from the USA, if need be ?

Thanks

[fluxen]

Had a look at the Kumho uk site, and the V70A appears to be what we have here as the Ecsta V700.